Kaleidoscope of Death

Kaleidoscope of Death by Xi Zixu

“So what about my stethoscope?”

Xiao Ji didn’t seem scared at all of Lin Qiushi’s suspicions, asking his question sharply in return.

“You used the stethoscope this morning, right?” Lin Qiushi asked.

Xiao Ji didn’t answer yes or no; keenly, he’d detected that Lin Qiushi’s question was a trap, so he didn’t speak.

However, Xiao Mei sat beside him spoke up calmly: “Yes, he used the stethoscope to open a chest this morning. Someone else saw it too.”

She pointed at a person in the crowd.

The person Xiao Mei was pointing to nodded, indicating that Xiao Mei wasn’t lying.

“When I passed by the living room today I saw Xiao Ji opening a chest. He also used the stethoscope.”

“Ah, so that means your stethoscope is currently operational?” Lin Qiushi said. “If there are no problems, may I have a look at it?”

With a scoff, Xiao Ji took the stethoscope from his neck and tossed it to Lin Qiushi.

“I’d like to see what you’re trying to sell here.”

Lin Qiushi took the stethoscope.

“Xiao Mei, you haven’t eaten, right?”

Xiao Mei nodded, and spoke with indifference: “Yes. Xiao Ji heard a Hakobito yesterday, so I didn’t eat anything.”

This wasn’t a strange turn of events, in fact was quite normal. The number of Hakobito had gradually increased, after all. It would be odder if, from the start until now, Xiao Ji had never encountered a Hakobito.

“Mh, if it can hear the Hakobito’s movements, that means this stethoscope definitely works,” Lin Qiushi said. “Let’s give it a try then.”

He put on the stethoscope and picked a random person beside him, pressing the stethoscope to his own chest[1]. As expected, the stethoscope that should’ve allowed him to hear something did not pick up any sounds; the end that went into the ears was completely silent.

“I can’t hear anything,” Lin Qiushi said. “You all can try it too.”

He tossed the stethoscope to somebody else.

Another person picked up the stethoscope, and after carefully listening, confirmed that there was nothing audible inside.

Xiao Ji’s expression went cold. He said, “you want me condemned based on just that?”

Lin Qiushi shrugged.

“Your stethoscope’s broken, so how did you hear sounds from inside the chests?”

Xiao Ji lifted his chin.

“And here I thought you’d have some way to prove I’m guilty. Well sorry, but I’ve already tried it before. This stethoscope is special. It can’t hear human heartbeats at all.”

Lin Qiushi’s lips curved up.

“Oh? You sure?”

Xiao Ji, “props inside the door are different from stuff outside to begin with. Yu Linlin, you’re not thinking of besmirching me with this in order to take my stethoscope from me, are you?!”

He banged on the table violently, seemingly on the verge of a fit over being so wrongly accused.

Lin Qiushi asked, “you’re sure that this stethoscope can’t hear heartbeats, and that it’s just a special item?”

“What? You saying you know my item better than me?”

Xiao Ji was locked in on this answer. After all, the stethoscope’s always been on him. He could say whatever he wanted about it and nobody could do a thing.

But Lin Qiushi took the stethoscope back in hand with a sigh.

“What a shame. If you hadn’t said that, I really don’t know what I would’ve done.”

And as he spoke, he began taking apart the stethoscope.

The earpieces on the stethoscope had metal rings that could be twisted off, with special sound-amplifying discs installed inside. However, when Lin Qiushi twisted one of the rings apart and removed the disc, everybody looking at the stethoscope grew shocked—because the space behind the disc had been stuffed with a wad of solid cotton, firmly blockading the path of sound transmission. Of course it hadn’t been able to hear a thing.

When Xiao Ji first saw the cotton, he froze. Then, expression drastically changing, he roared, “who said you could take my stethoscope apart—”

He lunged in front of Lin Qiushi, trying to take the stethoscope back, but Sun Yuanzhou, already standing ready beside him, held him back.

Xiao Ji saw that he could no longer get his hands on the stethoscope and began to cuss. It wasn’t difficult to see that the intensity of his reaction was weird.

Faced with Xiao Ji’s threats and insults, Lin Qiushi remained impassive. He calmly removed the cotton and put the stethoscope back together. This time, with the stethoscope’s amplifier placed on his chest, a heartbeat could be clearly and readily heard.

Lin Qiushi laughed, “this is what you used to distinguish whether a chest contained a box person? Very impressive.”

Xiao Mei joined him with a sneer. Since the death of her lover, an irreversible change had taken place in her body that had completely expelled the awkwardness and timidity of a newbie and made her incomparably cold.

When he saw such an interaction between Lin Qiushi and Xiao Mei, Xiao Ji finally cottoned on, shooting Xiao Mei a vicious glare.

“You betrayed me?” he spat. “Fucking bitch—you stuffed my stethoscope with cotton?!”

Xiao Mei’s arms wrapped around her chest as she watched Xiao Ji coolly.

“And what if I did?”

“Why the fuck did you sell me out??” Xiao Ji asked. “I’m the one who helped you kill Wei Xiude—”

At this, Xiao Mei began to laugh, loud and hard enough for tears to fall. She wiped the corners of her eyes and said, “are you that simple? You helped me? Weren’t you just helping yourself? Besides…”

Her voice grew brutal, and her tone was like it wanted to tear a piece skin off Xiao Ji’s body itself.

“The Hako Onna killed my lover, and you’re working with her?! You deserve to die!!”

Xiao Ji was panting, so angry that his eyes went red.

In order to prevent him from getting away, someone else fetched ropes and tied him down. Lin Qiushi put the stethoscope back together and set it on the table.

“Anything else you’d like to say?” he asked.

Xiao Ji gritted his teeth, and sneered.

“Hah, so what if it was me? Kill me if you can.”

He truly hadn’t been relying on the stethoscope to determine whether or not there were people in the chests, because he was required to open three chests per day and could only listen to the Hako Onna’s directions when doing so in order to avoid any errors.

If he hadn’t told them that the chest Xiao Mei wanted to open yesterday contained a Hakobito, he might have been able to make an argument for himself. The way things looked now though, these people seemed to have suspected him for a very long time.

“What a shame. You really think I can’t kill you?” Lin Qiushi stood up and walked in front of Xiao Ji, head down and staring. “There will be plenty of ways.”

Xiao Ji first shivered at Lin Qiushi’s gaze, but then grew angry at his own reaction. Teeth bared, he laughed,

“Hahahah, you’re pathetic too! So what if you kill me? If you kill me your lover’s going to come back to life? She’s already dead—she died last night, the Hako Onna killed her—didn’t you want to ask where the fire extinguisher is? Let me tell you, I was the one who hid it. I hid it in a chest, and so none of you will ever find it!”

Before Lin Qiushi could even move, Xiao Mei’s foot came flying in from the side. She kicked Xiao Ji straight to the ground, and then ground Xiao Ji’s hand viciously underfoot.

“It’s all your fault,” she screamed, “it’s your fault he’s dead. You’re the monster, you’re the monster who sided with the demons!! Die!!”

"Xiao Mei, calm down!” Sun Yuanzhou rushed to grab hold of her, worried that she was going to do something out of control. Though it’d be a way to get the anger out, she’d pay for it with her life.

“I know.” Xiao Mei halted, and spoke icily: “I know. I won’t die. I’m going to live. I’m going to live for him.”

Reaching up, she wiped away her tears, and her tone went quiet.

“I was supposed to be the one who opened that chest…”

When he heard her, however, Xiao Ji only started laughing—big hearty hahaha’s. He turned to Lin Qiushi with malice in his gaze and horrible words at the ready, planning on further provoking these two about their dead lovers, when there came the sound of light footsteps at the door, followed by a laughing voice that said:

“Who told you I was dead?”

Everyone jolted and looked up toward the door—they saw that Ruan Nanzhu, who should have died the night before, had appeared before them. Ruan Nanzhu looked back at everyone with a smile, slowly trodding before Lin Qiushi before saying: “Honey, I’m home.”

Lin Qiushi looked at him and didn’t speak.

While he didn’t answer, Xiao Ji began a piercing scream: “No way, no way, how could you have survived—No way!!”

Killing Ruan Nanzhu had been his most successful move. Not only had he buried the key, but he had also destroyed an item that could kill the Hako Onna. But this person who should’ve died had suddenly appeared before him, whole and hale!

“Kiddo, you want to know why veterans don’t like jumping newbies through too many doors?” Ruan Nanzhu was watching him with eyes full of pity. “Because only by passing the previous doors do us veterans get the cards up our sleeves. You really think all those doors are for nothing?”

Lin Qiushi stood next to Ruan Nanzhu, sizing up the person beside him. He spotted a red circle newly marking Ruan Nanzhu’s wrist—it looked as if it had been tattooed on, and made for a particularly piercing sight on the pale skin.

“Take a look. Aren’t I perfectly fine?” Ruan Nanzhu spoke to Xiao Ji. “Are you surprised? Is your mind blown?”

Xiao Ji trembled, so angry he could pass out.

“Holy fuck Zhu Meng, how the hell did you survive!” When she saw Ruan Nanzhu, Liang Miye too was astonished. Now she was asking the question everybody wanted to ask. “You, weren’t you…”

“I told you, I’ve got cards up my sleeve,” Ruan Nanzhu said. “No need to worry…”

He peered at Lin Qiushi as he spoke, but found Lin Qiushi utterly expressionless and ignoring him completely—and in his mind he began to curse.

“Let’s get the fire extinguisher’s location out of him first,” Lin Qiushi said. “That’s more important.”

“Let me do it,” Xiao Mei spoke warmly, twirling at a strand of hair by her ear. “I guarantee that when I get the answer from him, he’ll still be alive.”

“What are you going to do?!” Xiao Ji was terrified by the look in Xiao Mei’s eyes, and began to cuss again, a whole series of really bad words. When Xiao Mei seemed unmoved, he tried appealing to pathos once more: “Xiao Mei, I really do like you! Or I wouldn’t have helped you kill Wei Xiude!”

But Xiao Mei only laughed.

“Hah, kill Wei Xiude?” She spoke without much emotion at all. “Of course a dumb newbie would be easier to control than a wily veteran. Plus, I don’t believe you would’ve let me go.”

Since Xiao Ji and the Hako Onna had come to an arrangement, he definitely would’ve killed everybody else inside the door in order to prevent the Hako Onna from going back on her word, so he’d be protected by the rule of the doors. Xiao Mei would’ve really been stupid if she’d believed his nonsense.

This, Xiao Mei was quite clear on. It was also why she chose to cooperate with Lin Qiushi.

After that, Xiao Mei looked toward Ruan Nanzhu.

“I really thought you were dead.”

Ruan Nanzhu just smiled, noncommittal.

After that, other people began interrogating Xiao Ji about the location of the hidden fire extinguisher. Lin Qiushi sat at the side, not saying much. As a matter of fact ever since Ruan Nanzhu returned, Lin Qiushi hadn’t said anything to him at all.

Ruan Nanzhu was still smiling and teasing Lin Qiushi at first. Only a bit later did he realize something was wrong, and quickly called Lin Qiushi outside for them to speak alone.

Lin Qiushi followed Ruan Nanzhu impassively out to a side room and said, “go ahead. What did you want to say?”

“Linlin, are you angry?” Ruan Nanzhu made that pretty face of his all sad and pitiful as he whimpered, “don’t be angry with me, please?”

Truthfully, on any other day, Lin Qiushi’s anger likely wouldn’t have lasted after seeing Ruan Nanzhu like this. But today, he only huffed once, unfeeling and equivocal.

“Linlin, Linlin…” Ruan Nanzhu said. “Don’t be angry anymore, I feel so bad when I see you’re upset.”

He took Lin Qiushi’s hands and carefully pecked at the corners of Lin Qiushi’s mouth.

“Please?”

Lin Qiushi was unmoved.

“Let me just ask you one question.”

Ruan Nanzhu, “mh.”

Lin Qiushi, “were you sure you’d survive?”

Ruan Nanzhu said, “of course I was s—”

But before he’d even finished speaking Lin Qiushi cut him off—and with suppressed rage on the brink of breaking through the dam, Lin Qiushi called out Ruan Nanzhu’s full name.

“Ruan Nanzhu, after all that, you’re still going to fucking lie to me?!”

“Linlin, I really did have a way out,” Ruan Nanzhu said. “Remember the ‘Humans as Mirror” door, when I gave you that red bracelet inside? That bracelet can offset three supernatural attacks…"

He held out his wrist, showing Lin Qiushi that bright red mark on his arm.

“See? Aren’t I perfectly fine?”

As he spoke, he smiled cajolingly at Lin Qiushi. But at this explanation, Lin Qiushi only scoffed.

“If you really knew you were going to live, would you have put the key and wooden stake together?” He grew angrier and angrier, until his last words were basically suppressed shouting. “You’re just going to play me like I’m some kind of idiot?”

Ruan Nanzhu wanted to explain further, but Lin Qiushi was done listening. He said, “we’ll talk about this more outside. I’m not in a good mood right now, if we keep talking, I really will get angry with you.”

After that, he turned and left, giving Ruan Nanzhu no further opportunity to explain himself.

Ruan Nanzhu groaned without sound.

Back then, Lin Qiushi had really thought Ruan Nanzhu was done for. It wasn’t until he heard Ruan Nanzhu’s farewell—"Yu Linlin, I love you"—that Lin Qiushi came to knowledge. He’d understood in a split instant.

If Ruan Nanzhu really thought he was going to die, then when he gave his last confession, he would’ve at least called out Lin Qiushi’s real name, not “Yu Linlin.”

Lin Qiushi, once he understood everything, had steadied his crumbling emotional state. He also took all his fury for Ruan Nanzhu and buried it deep within himself.

On the other end, the interrogation had yielded results—Xiao Ji told them where the fire extinguisher was hidden. As for what method Xiao Mei used, Lin Qiushi didn’t ask. He wasn’t kind enough to forgive somebody who almost got Ruan Nanzhu killed; not taking care of Xiao Ji himself had been his last act of tolerance.

Xiao Ji confessed to everything. He said that immediately after he got here, he’d made a deal with the Hako Onna. He’d gotten a lot luckier than the dead Tian Guxue; the moment he entered the door he’d received the item set on the table and also the hidden rulebook.

Of course, to prevent other people from suspecting him, he’d hidden the item in one of the chests in the living room. Then, after reading the rulebook, he’d put the rulebook away in a corner of the dining room.

After that, Xiao Ji opened three chests in a row before everybody’s eyes. He’d opened up the item and one of the Hako Onna’s powers to boot.

As for Tian Guxue, she was entirely a smokescreen that the Hako Onna cooked up. Back when Ruan Nanzhu was having suspicions about Tian Guxue, he’d felt something was off, because Tian Guxue hadn’t seem anywhere clever enough to be a competent partner. Sure enough, right behind her had been the better player Xiao Ji, who’d been so much better that nobody even suspected him.

But when the unexpected happened to Ruan Nanzhu, it prompted Lin Qiushi to start thinking about all this. He contacted Xiao Mei in private and got her to tamper with Xiao Ji’s stethoscope. Then he’d gotten quite lucky—Xiao Ji immediately exposed himself and allowed Lin Qiushi to confirm that he was the mole.

Everything had gone smoothly, aside from the person who’d lied to him.

Ruan Nanzhu—he must have already guessed there was a second mole. He’d even predicted that the second mole would target him, and in order to leave Lin Qiushi out of danger, he’d hidden everything and directed two of Hako Onna’s powers onto himself. The reality was that everything Ruan Nanzhu did bore risk; even if he’d been eighty percent sure the bracelet could weather damage from the Hako Onna, there was still that twenty percent uncertainty. That was why he decided to leave behind the key and item, shutting himself up alone in Tian Guxue’s room.

Lin Qiushi understood all the logic, but he still couldn’t control his anger. The moment he thought about Ruan Nanzhu dying alone in that room without even a body to recover, he found it so damn difficult to bear.

“Are you two alright?” When the two came back out, the peculiar atmosphere between them was worrying, so Liang Miye asked a quiet word or two.

“We’re fine,” Lin Qiushi answered coolly. “What could possibly be wrong?”

Liang Miye, “…” Y'all sure don’t look fine. And this was the first time she’s seen such an ingratiating expression on Ruan Nanzhu’s face.

“Baby are you hungry?”

“No.”

“Baby are you thirsty?”

“No.”

“Baby—”

“Don’t call me baby.”

“Linlin…”

“Shut up.”

The above was their dialogue, and everyone around them listening in began to look queer; Sun Yuanzhou forced down a laugh and cleared his throat a couple of times before saying you two sure are cute together, but this was no time to flirt. Let’s talk about the matter of the Hako Onna first.

How to get the items, how to kill the Hako Onna and get out of here—these were the most important matters at hand.

“We have at most six days,” Ruan Nanzhu said. “After six days, the Hako Onna can probably activate 'I’m Behind You’ again. If we’re not out by then…well, we might never get out.”

“The item we have right now that can kill the Hako Onna is the wooden stake. Once we figure out the Hako Onna’s location we can hit her with it, and for her to use a power, she has to cry.” Sun Yuanzhou too had straightened out his thoughts. “As long as we wait…”

“That’s right,” Ruan Nanzhu said. “But the stake can only be used once, and if we use it in the wrong place, we’ll have lost a critical opportunity.” The wooden stake had to be used prior to opening a chest. He continued, “I haven’t used the gasoline we put through the door either. This is also a key item.”

“Mh, we just don’t know if there’s any notable difference between the Hako Onna’s chest and the Hakobito’s,” Lin Qiushi said. “If the stethoscope can tell the difference between those two, that’s for the best. If it can’t, then things will be a bit more difficult.”

By the current look of things, when the Hako Onna cried, they could only confirm which room she was in, not which specific chest.

So there was still risk in it for them.

“Finding more items would be safer,” Ruan Nanzhu said, “but time isn’t waiting for us.”

Everybody began to ponder the matter.

Today, the Hako Onna seemed to have realized that things weren’t looking good, and so didn’t use a power or cry aloud. Lin Qiushi could only confirm the Hako Onna was on the first floor, but didn’t know a more concrete location.

If the Hako Onna didn’t cry, then they could make no progress. They could only wait.

While they waited, Ruan Nanzhu brazenly kept trying to make conversation with Lin Qiushi. At first, Lin Qiushi answered on and off, but after he grew annoyed he didn’t even bother replying, just kept his head down and played with his phone.

A resentful expression appeared on Ruan Nanzhu’s face; he wanted to be the thing held in Lin Qiushi’s hand.

Liang Miye spectated their interactions and held back laughter from the sidelines. Obsidian Leader Ruan Nanzhu was so austere and cold outside the door—who knew he’d be like this inside? Of course, she didn’t dare laugh out loud, because if she irritated Ruan Nanzhu and got him truly angry…She wasn’t about to get the same treatment as Lin Qiushi.

Lin Qiushi was clearly still angry, and it wasn’t just any small upset.

Seeing him like this, Ruan Nanzhu was troubled. He thought that if he couldn’t even get Lin Qiushi to come around with an advantage as huge as Zhu Meng inside the door, then it’d be even harder outside the door.

And so going to sleep at night, Ruan Nanzhu crept his way into Lin Qiushi’s bed.

“Linlin, I’m scared.” The person before him stared with big, dark, beautiful eyes, watching Lin Qiushi all innocently. “Will you sleep with me please?”

Lin Qiushi was impassive: “You’re scared?”

Ruan Nanzhu, “yeah.”

“That’s great. I’m scared too.”

With that he got up, leaving Ruan Nanzhu on the bed, and switched over to Ruan Nanzhu’s bed.

Ruan Nanzhu, “…” Oh crap, oh crap, his dearest Linlin was actually angry, and of the type that couldn’t even be sweet-talked.

Author’s Note:

Ruan Nanzhu: Are you angry?

Lin Qiushi: No.

Ruan Nanzhu: Are you angry?

Lin Qiushi: No.

Ruan Nanzhu: Are y—

Lin Qiushi: Ask me again and I will kill you.

Ruan Nanzhu: _(:з」∠)_

The Daily Life of Popuruan and Pipilin[2] hahahaha

Translator’s Note:

1. That’s definitely what the Chinese said so I’m wondering if there’s a typo. LQS grabbed someone in the group, but put the stethoscope to his own chest and listened to the stethoscope himself.
2. “The Daily Life of Popuko and Pipimi” is the Chinese title of Pop Team Epic